Tracking mobile phones for NHS

[patman post]

There is a proposal that mobile phone users should download an NHS app that recognises (via Bluetooth) other nearby phones with the same app and passes this info into central storage.

The idea is that should a phone user with this app show symptoms of novel coronavirus, or have to self isolate, they enter that info into their phone. All users of like-apped phones that have been registered as being nearby over the past two weeks or so are then informed and can take the appropriate action.

It's reckoned that approx 60% of phone users would need to download the app to be effective. I predict there will be plenty of opposition to the whole idea from many quarters (David Davis might resign, again). But I think it would be a useful tool in containing Covid-19...